I'm busy posting pictures this week!
There was this orb web in the bushes. Usually these turn out to be one of our more common species (spotted, marbled, or cross orbweavers), but this time it was something completely different. Near one of the upper corners of the web, where an orbweaver normally has a retreat in a curled up leaf, was this strangely beautiful silken retreat that was fashioned like a woven basket. That is weird! The spider can be seen in the retreat toward the right.
Lattice orbweaver retreat by Mark Sturtevant, on Flickr
What could it be? I carefully nudged the spider out, and here she is. This is the lattice orbweaver (Araneus thaddeus), so-named for this special retreat that they make. She was very unhappy about being out in the open, and she clambered back into her home after a few pictures.
Lattice orbweaver by Mark Sturtevant, on Flickr
I checked on her that night, and found her in the middle of her web, munching on something she had caught.
Thanks for looking!
An interesting orbweaver
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An interesting orbweaver
Mark Sturtevant
Dept. of Still Waters
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Re: An interesting orbweaver
Lovely and interesting! I have never seen a retreat like this.
--Rik
--Rik
Re: An interesting orbweaver
Mark, a great find and a very well-taken series. Perhaps the "lady of the house" was unhappy because she thought that you might have been a salesman knocking on the door.
Herman Munster www.flickr.com/photos/153096150@N05